November 6, 2002

In this issue

IT'S THE NIGHT before Election Day, and I came home to 17 pieces of political mail. Seventeen. Every bit of it focused on local ballot measures. And that's for a household with two registered voters.

I don't remember when I've seen so much mail for a local election, such a huge sum of money being spent on what amounts to the only way San Francisco campaigns can easily communicate with voters. The San Francisco Chronicle has done a decent job covering a couple of campaigns (and a really good job covering Proposition D – thanks, Chuck Finnie and Susan Sward, for showing what determined and honest reporters can do at a daily paper). But overall, the one major daily in town hasn't devoted a whole lot of space to the local election (it would have taken at least a 10-page supplement to do the job right, and the mighty and rich Hearst Corp., which wants to put out a "world-class paper," doesn't want to spend that kind of money in this town).

So a lot of people don't know what most of Propositions A through S and BB are all about – except for what they got in the mail.

This is the tricky flip side of direct democracy: It's relatively easy to put something on the ballot, and voters in San Francisco get a much more immediate say in how the city is run than they do in a lot of places. But it's hard without a real daily paper to fight the flood of money.

I have no idea as I write this what will happen tomorrow, which measures will win and which will lose. I do know, though, that an encouraging and important type of politics emerged with this election. The progressives running a series of underfunded campaigns decided to work together, pooling resources and making combined pitches in what little media they could afford. It wasn't easy or perfect, and it may not have succeeded across the board, but it was a big start, an important start, a sign that the left in this city may be learning how to fight the big money. Win or lose, we've gained a lot.

In fact, whatever happens to Prop. D, the public power battle is just getting hotter nationwide: the Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 4, in a front-page story, that advocates of municipal utilities are on the move all over the country, promising lower rates and better service. So the battle continues.